The Illusion of Choice

Lvl83 CI Templar checking in.

Solo'ed all the way.

someone likes ligthning I guess.

The devs have responded. In one such response, they said that A3 came first as content, and "balance" would come next. While they have not specifically stated what that means, I suspect that they have discovered that what a number of us are saying (and what I specifically have stated numerous times) is true: the mobs do a bit too much damage in A3.

If incoming damage is lowered a bit, defenses aren't as crucial. I might also add, that this lesson was one that was very publically learned in that other game, where the problem was a clarion call of the community in the format of "build diversity," and everyone taking all the defensive options there, as well, until the problem was addressed. I expect we'll see something similar here, although confess I am not sure of the format.

On the issue of armor, you can chart armor values against incoming DPS and damage mitigation. I do agree that armor should have a narrower bandgap between the lowest and highest percent DR. If that happens, however, all the other defenses will need to be reconsidered and buffed also, because evasion is not as weak when compared to armor currently as most people say, and obviously energy shield would need a touch up as well.

I therefore wonder if simply carving some damage off of the mobs wouldn't be simpler (and less work) anyway.

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FcknGroovin wrote:

This post gets so many comments because there is truth in the OP's assessment that resonates with many players.

Personally, I'm not as overly concerned with the current game state, I'm more concerned with the direction.

The latest swath of changes and patches from the closed to open beta were negative. Builds are restrictive now, 80% of the passive nodes are simply invalid.

Before the detractors start their standard issue "everything is fine" responses, the question is -- Was closed beta more fun than open? The answer is yes. Few can explain why it's better after open, and how the direction not the state of game is better.

Wait a tick...

Fun is completely subjective. For you it was more fun...I personally have found OB somewhat more fun.

Yes, my build in CB was downright overpowered. So much so, Merciless was really no harder than Cruel. With a shifting of the passive tree that went bye bye in OB.

In CB I played mostly solo. My build was centered around that. In OB, my build is now centered upon group play. I have fairly good damage capabilities, but my sirvivability is low. During CB, I had both...and it wasn't hard to steamroll anything. Now, my friends and I are having a blast in group play...each of us built characters to compliment the other. We still steamroll stuff...but as a group...not solo. Oddly enough to me that is way more fun than CB solo play.

Is the game perfect? Of course not...no game is. I would agree ACT 3 needs a bit of tweaking, melee needs some love, and there a few bugs that need squashing. However, in my opinion, the game is actually more fun in OB. I also have no doubt GGG will address these issues in due time.

To each their own though.

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C2487233 wrote:

also : BETA














also : B E T A .

You do realize this is the BETA FEEDBACK section, right?

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mkmaddage wrote:

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VoodooB wrote:

Why dont they ever respond to this type of post?

Its obvious to most people who didnt struggle and claw their way to a decent level with a mostly non viable build that the OP is correct.

They do and have responded to posts like this.

Perhaps you should consider for at least a nanosecond that the forums have seen a whole lot of traffic about issues like this and the devs, being human, reach a point where they won't keep spouting the same line on the xth post to arrive from an ill-informed player claiming "x doesn't work right".

There's no "Illusion of Choice" here. It's hilarious that the small-minded thinking that produces this "conclusion" is so prevalent.

You have exactly the amount of choice you appear to have. What the OP and other whiners are saying is that they don't like the options given because they believe they should be able to survive any and all situations in the game right through to the conclusion of Merciless with whatever build they choose.

They could be right. Perhaps Path of Exile can't be considered a game if only x build can make it through to endgame and all the others can only make it up to Act 1 Merciless (or thereabouts). But even if that IS the case, the game is not complete yet and there are more skills to come. When it's complete and they've ironed things out build choice will be what it needs to be then.

I don't feel that my post was a "whiner" post. I also don't think I'm being small-minded. Calling people with an opposing opinion whiners and small-minded is actually pretty... small-minded.

When half of the passive tree is damage modifiers, and when I see tons of notables and circles of damage passives, it tells me that the devs want me to choose some damage passives. But when I actually play the game, it is obvious that I need to take life passives and almost exclusively defensive passives. But there is so much offense in the tree. Why? I just don't think the passive tree is as free as it was meant to be. It's not even about efficiency or being the "best." It comes down to just not dying.

That doesn't mean that I should be able to pick ANY passives and cruise through the game. Trust me, I like to build really unique and bizarre characters. But when I'm planning a character, I have to consider the fact that it needs to be playable in Merciless, in maps, and able to handle Act Bosses. You realize that this eliminates 90% of builds, and even a lot of builds that people are talking about in this thread? If you die a lot (or at all really) playing your character, your build isn't viable.

Basically, no matter what your build, the number one priority is EHP (either life or es), followed by a handful of Keystones and defenses. These will basically dictate your entire path through the tree. From this, you usually want to grab the strongest notables that are as close as possible so as not to waste points on offense.

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ggnorekthx wrote:

If you die a lot (or at all really) playing your character, your build isn't viable.

Right... so deaths to desync means that the build isn't viable? Or, how about deaths due to random mistakes.. does that also mean the build isn't viable? Or, what if your dog eats your ethernet cable while you are playing... do you blame that on the build too?

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Azidonis wrote:

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ggnorekthx wrote:

If you die a lot (or at all really) playing your character, your build isn't viable.

Right... so deaths to desync means that the build isn't viable? Or, how about deaths due to random mistakes.. does that also mean the build isn't viable? Or, what if your dog eats your ethernet cable while you are playing... do you blame that on the build too?

You know, I figured I should re-word that but was hoping people knew what I meant. Obviously dying because of a desync or lag isn't a build problem, but I see a lot of people who play Default and claim all this build diversity crap and then they mention how they only died six times trying to kill Vaal. I simply meant that straying a lot from the "HP>Defense>Res>All" mentality of the Passive Tree will almost always result in a character who dies a lot... and dying a lot indicates not being very viable. In Hardcore, you cannot die at all, so what do you do? You stack HP because if you don't you'll get one shotted. Hell, even with 10k life you might get one shotted. This severely limits your options on the Passive Tree.

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Azidonis wrote:

You know, I figured I should re-word that but was hoping people knew what I meant. Obviously dying because of a desync or lag isn't a build problem, but I see a lot of people who play Default and claim all this build diversity crap and then they mention how they only died six times trying to kill Vaal. I simply meant that straying a lot from the "HP>Defense>Res>All" mentality of the Passive Tree will almost always result in a character who dies a lot... and dying a lot indicates not being very viable. In Hardcore, you cannot die at all, so what do you do? You stack HP because if you don't you'll get one shotted. Hell, even with 10k life you might get one shotted. This severely limits your options on the Passive Tree.

my best two characters are near the end of act 2 and act 1 on Cruel respectively, so I may be new to this game - but I can already tell you that builds are far from balanced.
worse still: some builds just sound good, but are bad in practice - and there's no way for the player to know that.
it's a beta thing probably, but when I took that awesome-sounding evade-all passive and got something like 70% chance to dodge all damage - then stepped out to the cruel act 2 world and got 1-shot by the first regular monster, you can imagine how that felt.

does that make me a bad player or a bad character builder? I don't think so.
the game just isn't fair sometimes.

my Hardcore Shadow is level 8 and a build that looks good, but I haven't played him since because I fear death due to the lag spikes, which have occurred too often lately.
and what if I again took a passive that sounds good now, but will prove to be a weakness later? no way to tell.

the game is far from balanced right now.
and the enormous passive tree looks deceivingly versatile, but very few specific builds can handle this game properly. especially in Hardcore.

so (TLDR) yes I agree with the original poster. there is no real choice.
only one in a hundred character builds would keep you playing to high level (instead of rage-quitting in the middle, because you die every 2 minutes).
only one in a thousand character builds would get you to the top 500 in the Hardcore league.

the game needs to be a test of player skills - that's what good games are - but right now it's a total gear-check, and a "did you follow the exact guide by <top-player-name>?" check.
even active skills are a gear-check, and 80% of them are worthless.

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johnKeys wrote:

my best two characters are near the end of act 2 and act 1 on Cruel respectively, so I may be new to this game - but I can already tell you that builds are far from balanced.
worse still: some builds just sound good, but are bad in practice - and there's no way for the player to know that.
it's a beta thing probably, but when I took that awesome-sounding evade-all passive and got something like 70% chance to dodge all damage - then stepped out to the cruel act 2 world and got 1-shot by the first regular monster, you can imagine how that felt.

does that make me a bad player or a bad character builder? I don't think so.
the game just isn't fair sometimes.

It just means you didn't have enough HP. Evasion is not a substitute for life. Armor is not a substitute for life. If you die in one hit, you do not have enough life.

The game is perfectly fair. It is a game, it treats everyone the same. What about that is not fair?

Currently builds are more about skill setup and less about passive specs imho. Currently passives are all about getting the 'needed' stuff for the build and as much HP as you can stack on top of that. This is one of my only current complaints actually.